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Introduction

The only thing more important than organizing a great event is marketing it.
Imagine youve perfected every detail of your event only to face an empty room
on the big day.

When it comes to marketing your event, social media is your hidden superpower.
Eventbrite has found that a fifth of traffic to ticketing and registration pages comes
from social media thats a quarter of your promotional power for your event.
After all, how else can you reach millions of interested event-goers without paying
thousands on ad campaigns?

New social media platforms are popping up every day, and its increasingly difficult
to stand out amongst the noise on Facebook and Twitter. Thats why you need a
social media strategy that takes advantage of the networks where you can drive the
most ticket and registration sales. And because organizing an event is nothing if not
time consuming, you need to make an impact in minutes, not hours.

To help you use social media to sell more tickets and registrations, we turned to
the experts at Buffer, a social media management platform. The Buffer team helps
more than three million customers drive traffic to their sites, increase engagement,
and save time on social media. In this guide, youll learn nine steps to help you develop
and improve your social media event marketing strategy, including how to:

Prioritize which networks to use, and how to use them

Increase engagement on social media, during promotion and the event itself

Measure results and see which of your efforts drove ticket sales or registrations

Meet the authors

Ash Read Christy Huggins


Content Crafter Senior Social Media Manager
Buffer Eventbrite

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Section 1 How to choose the most impactful social
networks for your event

Managing your social media marketing can become overwhelming, fast. According to
Wikipedia, there are more than 189 social networks used globally, and new ones seem
to emerge every week.1 So how do you identify the optimal social media channels for
your marketing strategy?

Sometimes, less is more when it comes to social media. In fact, if the time commitment
is too great, or a particular network isnt the right fit for your attendees, you might decide
to skip it. When youre choosing which social networks to use, its okay to be picky.

So how do you know which social networks are right for your event?

Step 1 Get familiar with the most popular social networks


Chances are, by the time youve finished exploring all the available social networks,
a new one will have popped up. To prioritize your time, focus on the channels with the
widest possible reach.

According to Statistica, here are the social networks with the most monthly active
users in 2016 so far.2 In step 2, well explore who those users actually are, but start
by familiarizing yourself with the big guns.

Facebook Snapchat
1.59 billion 200 million
monthly active users monthly active users

Instagram LinkedIn
400 million 100 million
monthly active users monthly active users

Twitter Pinterest
320 million 100 million
monthly active users monthly active users

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Facebook is the clear leader, but some of the other data may surprise you. Did you
know Instagram has more users than Twitter? And that Snapchat has approximately
double the monthly users of LinkedIn?

To understand the potential of each network for your event, its worth researching
how other events like yours use the platforms to reach their audiences. Here are a few
examples to get started:

Crescent City Classic uses Facebook to inspire participants with training schedules
and #MotivationMonday posts, and to promote registrations

San Francisco venue Ruby Skye uses Twitter to engage with music fans and promote
ticket sales

BottleRock Napa uses Instagram to highlight photos and videos of their festival all
year round

DIG SOUTH Interactive Conference uses LinkedIn to highlight their sponsors and
speakers

Wanderlust Festival uses Pinterest to deliver inspirational content relating to yoga,


wellness, and food to its audience

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Step 2 Focus on where you can best reach
potential attendees
Tim Grahl at Out:Think has a simple list of questions to ask when deciding where to
invest social marketing resources. Adapted for events, they are:

1. Does this network make sense for the content Im producing?


Consider the content youll be producing and sharing. Will you be posting links
to longer articles about speakers at your conference? Instagram might not make
much sense, given that its primarily used on mobile where people dont necessarily
want to read longer articles (and you cant include clickable links in your captions).
But if your promotion strategy is focused on pictures and videos from last years
music festival, Instagram could be the perfect fit.

2. Do your potential attendees spend time there?


To answer the second question, you need to understand your audience. What is the
average age of your attendees? Do they skew to one gender? Based on your ticket
or registration price, make an educated guess about their income level.

Once you understand your attendees, its time to find the social network(s) where
your audience spends the most time. Check out the Pew Research Centers
demographics of how many online internet users use each social network below.3

Social Summary Usage by Usage by age Usage by


network gender education/income

Facebook Most widely used across the board. 77% of women 87% of 1829 year olds No significant distinction
66% of men 73% of 30-49 year olds
63% of 50-64 year olds
56% of 65+ year olds

Twitter Most popular among high-income 21% of women 37% of 18-29 year olds 30% of college grads
millennials. 24% of men 25% of 30-49 year olds 27% of those who make
more than $50k per year

Instagram Most popular among millennial women, 29% of women 53% of 18-29 year olds 31% of individuals with some
many of whom are college students. 22% of men 25% of 30-49 year olds college education

LinkedIn Unique among the sites as the only 28% of men 23% of 18-29 year olds 50% of college grads
professional networking platform. Most 27% of women 31% of 30-49 year olds 44% of individuals making
popular with educated, slightly older 30% of 50-64 year olds more than $75k per year
users with a higher income in urban/ 21% of 65+year olds
suburban areas.

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Social Summary Usage by Usage by age Usage by
network gender education/income

Pinterest 80% of Pinterests users are women.4 42% of women 34% of 18-29 year olds 32% of college grads
Most popular among well-educated 13% of men 28% of 30-49 year olds 30% of some college
women of all ages with higher incomes; 27% of 50-64 year olds 34% of >$75k
only network that skews toward 17% of 65+ year olds 30% of >$50k
rural usage.

Snapchat5 Most popular with 18-24 year old 70% of users 71% of users 62% of users make less
women, often students. are women are under 25 than $50k per year

So how do you apply this knowledge? Find the networks where your potential
attendees and social media users overlap. Some of the overlap should feel intuitive:
if you organize professional events, you may want to stick to networks with more
college grads. If youre organizing more expensive leisure activities, you probably
want to focus on platforms with an audience with a higher income level.

If youre not sure where the overlap is, dig into your ticketing and registration
reports or consider sending a survey to your previous attendees to better
understand their demographics. You can even add a custom question to your
purchase flow about social media to find out where your most recent ticket buyers
or registrants are active.

Whether in a survey or the purchase flow, including a question like Which social
networks have you used in the last week? removes the guesswork from your
selection. After all, if youre not sure which social networks your audience uses,
the easiest way to find out is to ask!

3. Does it make sense for me?


Its the answer to this final question that could be the most telling argument for
or against a social network. If youve done your research already and are still on
the fence, its time to consider your personal bandwidth.

Ask yourself: Does it make sense for me? Is it something I can easily fit into my
responsibilities? Do I have time to do it? After doing some research and observation,
do I get how it works?

This last question can be particularly compelling. Many of us feel like we can learn
a new network if given enough time. But in the hectic world of event organizing, when
do we have enough time? If youve tried and still dont think you can use the network
authentically, it may be time to move onto another network that works better for you.

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Need a gut check? Use this cheat sheet.
By now, youve likely judged the necessity of each social network to your event by looking
at the stats and asking yourself important questions. But if youre still unsure, here are
some quick answers.

Should you be on Facebook?

Yes, if you dont mind the competition. More than 70 percent of online adults actively
use Facebook. It is far and away the most popular social network. Consider, though,
that with great popularity comes great competition. Facebook is visited by 1.59 billion
people around the world every day, including your potential attendees. But the News
Feed is a crowded place for your event updates making it more important than ever
to share posts that stand out.

Facebook also has a popular Events feature that enables you to invite people, spread
the word, and keep attendees up to date. For more on how to use Facebook Events to
sell more tickets and registrations, check out this on-demand webinar from the
Facebook Events team.

Should you be on Twitter?

Quite likely, if your event draws a younger, tech-savvy crowd. Michelle Manafy of
Inc. calls Twitter users information junkies, referring to a wide variety of information:
technology, news, sports, marketing, journalism, and so on.6

Topical and timely posts work great on Twitter. Be aware that a tweet reaches its
peak after 18 minutes, so youll want to post more frequently than on other networks.

Should you be on Instagram?

Yes, if your event is especially photogenic. Organizing an artsy festival, a swanky food
and wine affair, or a beautiful dance performance? Instagram is a great way to use your
photos for Throwback Thursdays (#tbt) all year round.

As we mentioned, Instagram doesnt support clickable links in the description of


individual images, but you can put links in your bio. For that reason, it works great in a
pairing with Facebook or Twitter. More and more users join every day, albeit young ones.

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Should you be on LinkedIn?

Yes, if your event appeals to businesses and career-driven attendees. LinkedIns


audience is full of great insights on work productivity, networking, and job hunting.
If you organize classes, conferences, trainings, or educational events, take a serious
look at LinkedIn.

Should you be on Pinterest?

Yes, if you have visually appealing content. If your events cater to women or focus on
categories like food or DIY, youll likely find a demographic fit. That means its a great
place to promote craft fairs, pop-up dinners, or cooking or art classes.

Should you be on Snapchat?

Yes, if your attendees are in their teens and twenties. Snapchat is incredibly popular
among the 16-30 demographic, but it has a bit of a learning curve. One easy way to
use Snapchat to build a strong connection with your audience? Create a geofilter for
your event.

Geofilters are illustrations or filters for Snapchat photos that can only be used
within specific geographies. (You just need to submit an illustration by following these
instructions, and your filter will be reviewed within two business days.) For any photos
taken using Snapchat at your events location, users can layer your filter over their
pictures. Snapchat pictures are either sent to friends or added to your attendees story
(a series of Snapchat images theyve taken in the last 24 hours), so anyone who views
their image will be exposed to your brand.

Since youd likely only activate geofilters during your event, this effort wouldnt
necessarily drive sales for your current event. But its a great way to build awareness
and excitement for your next event when users see their friends having a great time.

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Step 3 Upgrade your social profiles with these
quick wins
Your profile on each social network is an important and often overlooked part of
your social presence. Here are a few ways to improve your social media profiles in just
a few minutes.

1. Optimize your bio copy


The short snippet of copy featured in your bio or about section is one of the first
things people will see in your social media profile. And because social networking
sites are established and trusted by Google, its likely your social profile will show up
high in search results for your event. What impression do you want to leave potential
attendees with?

Your copy should reflect your events personality, while staying short and to the point.
A well-crafted event bio should include:

A short, one-sentence description of your event (you can even follow


the BottleRock example below and do an equation!)

The date of your next event

Your event location

Your ticketing or registration link

These elements answer potential attendees key questions about your event:
what its about, when and where it is, and how they can buy tickets or register.

Examples of effective event bios on Twitter

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2. Check your profile image sizes
Images are an essential part of social media marketing, and no picture is more
prominent than your profile picture. You want your profile image to show off the
experience potential attendees will have if they buy a ticket or register.

Most social media sites will crop or stretch an image to fit within the allotted
window, since photos show up on so many different screen sizes. Its worth optimizing
your images before you upload, so they show up beautifully on mobile as well
as desktop.

Here are the suggested image sizes for major social networks:

Facebook profile picture: 180180 pixels

Facebook cover photo: 851315 pixels

Twitter profile photo: 400400 pixels

Twitter header image: 1500500 pixels

Instagram profile picture: 180180 pixels

LinkedIn profile photo: 400400 pixels

LinkedIn logo: 400400 pixels

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Section 2 How to engage potential attendees on your
social networks

Once youve decided which social networks are worth investing in, its time to actually
start posting. But how can you post content that will engage potential attendees and
motivate them to buy tickets or register?

Follow the next four steps to create buzz-worthy social content that sells.

Step 4 Brainstorm a variety of content for your posts


In a study of 25 million tweets about events, Eventbrite found that 40% of posts take
place before the event happens. This anticipation creates a lot of excitement, and can
drive ticket and registration sales. But while you want to promote sales, you also want
to be careful not to annoy your audience.

The key is to strike the balance between promotional posts and conversational posts
and to post a wide variety to keep things interesting. One strategy to achieve balance
is to follow the 4:1:1 rule of social media: for every promotional post, you should retweet
or share one relevant post, and post four pieces of relevant content written by others.
(Think of relevant content as content thats interesting and valuable to your audience,
but isnt related to your event.) The goal of this strategy is to create a relationship with
your potential attendees by providing genuinely useful content that inspires them
not just pushes sales on them.

The balance for your account may vary week to week and month to month.
For example, as the event gets closer you may share more promotional posts, but
when tickets and registrations arent on sale you might share only relevant posts
to keep up the conversation.

In practice, youll likely find some gray area between these two buckets. For example,
you might incentivize sharing of your event in a post without directly promoting sales.
However, thinking about posts in these buckets can be effective to get your creative
juices flowing. For a little more inspiration, here are some examples:

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Promotional posts:

Countdown to the event or to on-sale dates

Share creative reveals of lineups or special guests

Use teaser videos and images to increase excitement

Humble brag by posting media or influencer coverage of your event

Use urgency to drive purchases when early bird ticket and registration sales end

Offer discount codes to followers of your social media accounts

Share articles about your event to generate PR

Relevant posts:

Share relevant industry news to keep attendees and potential attendees up to date

Use interactive content like questions or polls these can even be used to decide
components of the event!

Make fans feel like insiders with a behind-the-scenes look at the events production

Create social contests and giveaways, such as offering VIP access to select followers
who share the post

Respond to any questions, issues, or comments people send your way

Create engaging images of the event that entice sharing

Surface great user-generated content (UGC): Retweet or share posts, pictures,


and video from attendees of the event

For promotional posts, include a link to your ticketing or registration page to make it
as easy as possible for people to buy. You can use Buffer or a link shortener like Bit.ly
to shorten the link, so it doesnt take up much of your valuable character count.
(Its also worth setting up tracking on the link to see whats driving sales, either via your
social media management platform or with UTM codes more on that on page 23.)

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Step 5 Tailor your content to each social network
Youve already learned some of the key differences between audiences on different social
networks. So it should come as no surprise that these distinct audiences will engage
with different types of content and be convinced to buy tickets or register by different
types of posts.

With all your responsibilities, creating a unique post for each social media channel can
feel like a big investment of time. But there are surprisingly low-effort ways to customize
your posts with huge benefits. This will help to give your content a fresh feel no matter
where your audience sees it, and show that youve put some thought into each update.

These tweaks dont have to be major, or take long. For example, look how San Francisco
venue Ruby Skye promoted an upcoming show from DJ Borgeous differently on
Facebook and Twitter:

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In the Facebook post on the previous page, Ruby Skye promoted their upcoming
show with an entire album of photos from the artists previous performance. The slightly
longer post appeals to both fans who couldnt make the last show, and attendees who
want to relive the experience. On Twitter, they kept the post short and to the point,
chose one image, and used a related hashtag for people looking for things to do in
San Francisco. (For more on how to use visuals to bring posts to life, see page 20.)

Experiment to see what kinds of posts your audience responds best to on each social
network. Buffer has learned that their Facebook audience tends to like a bit more context
around a blog post, whereas their Twitter followers tend to engage with straightforward
tweets that contain awesome visuals. (Not too different from this Ruby Skye example!)

Keep an open mind about the potential audience and what they might respond
to before crafting a post. Heres how Buffer thinks about promoting content across
social networks:

Network What your audience wants What to post

Facebook Entertainment and value Think share first. What will make your
audience want to share your post?
Aim to spark emotions and interest with
captions and headlines.

Twitter News, tips, Twitter best practices, Quick, witty, and eye-catching updates are
how-tos, interesting articles, and your best friend.
whats trending

Instagram Stunning visuals Which portion of your content is the most


visually pleasing? Share that! If theres none,
try creating an image to share with Pablo
or Canva.

LinkedIn Professional advice and updates How will your content add value to the
professional lives of your audience? Try to
express those professional benefits in your
LinkedIn updates.

Pinterest Creative ideas Think beautiful images plus how-tos.


As much content as you can clearly fit
into a visual, the better infographics are
a perfect medium to accomplish this.

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To help this come to life, heres how a beer festival might approach each channel:

Dont know about you, but the Eventbrite Beer Fest this weekend is the only thing getting
us through Wednesday... [Link to ticketing page] [Image of beer on grass]

Beers + Music + Food Trucks = the perfect Saturday.


Dont miss #EBfest2016: [Link to ticket page] [Beer image]

Drooling just looking at these bad boys? Get your tickets to #EBFest2016 & they can be
yours this Saturday! (Check out our bio for the ticket link).

Looking for a team-building activity people actually WANT to attend? Swing by


the Eventbrite Beer Fest after work this Friday and raise a glass with your team!
[Link to ticketing page] [Image of beer bottles clinking]

Inspired by the Eventbrite Beer Fest this year? Learn how to brew your own beer with
expert tips from the SF Brewers Association: [Link to interview on your event website]
[Infographic about brewing beer]

Save time by planning posts in advance


Consistency is an essential ingredient of any social media strategy, but its tough to
produce high-quality content every day (or even multiple times per day) especially
when youre customizing the posts for each network.

One strategy for keeping your content fresh? Be open to inspiration. Whenever you see
an article or take a picture that would be great to post, bookmark it. (Pocket is a great
tool to save this content in one place.) If youre still running low on ideas, take a half hour
with your team to write down every possible post idea that comes to mind. There are no
bad ideas! An unfiltered brain dump like this can generate fresh ideas and keep your
content rockin.

Once you have your ideas built out, you dont need to wait until the perfect moment
to post. You can schedule them ahead of time using a tool like Buffer, which even allows
you to publish posts on multiple social networks at once. After all, its easy to forget
to publish an update when youre in the middle of securing sponsors or negotiating
with venues.

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Step 6 Learn the best length and time for your posts
Now you may be asking questions like: how long should my tweet be? How many times
per day should I post to Facebook?

It would be easy to just say it depends, but wheres the fun in that? Buffer developed
suggestions for the ideal lengths of posts on different networks.

Solid research exists to show the value of writing, tweeting, and posting at certain times
of day, and at certain lengths. (Note: most of the existing research has been done on
Facebook and Twitter but the insights are helpful for posts on all networks.)

Ideal length of posts

The rule of thumb across social networks is to keep it short very short. Buffer reviewed
numerous studies and found the ideal lengths for posts for each platform, based on
average engagement with posts:

40
characters
25
words
100
characters

Posts with 40 If youre marketing Tweets shorter than


characters to businesses, write 100 characters have
receive 86% more a 16-25 word post. a 17% higher
engagement than If youre marketing engagement rate.
posts with a higher to consumers, 21-25
character count. word posts typically
get the most shares.

Did you know? The ideal length of a hashtag is six characters. Dont use spaces or special characters, dont start
with or only use numbers, and be careful with using slang.

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Best times to post on each social network

To get your post in front of as many eyes as possible, you want to post when most
of your audience is online. On some social networks like Facebook, you can find out
specifically when your followers are logged in the most, and you can use social media
analytics platforms to find out when your audience is most engaged. For platforms
without that information or if youre focused more on expanding your audience to
gain followers and attendees use the best practices below to time your posts on
each platform.

Be sure to keep in mind time zones when youre planning posts as well. If your event is
a destination adventure, or appeals to tourists and travellers, keep those hours in mind
to stagger posts appropriately. Check your ticket buyers and registrants by geography
chart in your ticketing dashboard to understand where the majority of your audience
lives.

If you havent yet found the times that work best for you, here are the hours that are
generally best to post on each network.

Facebook:

Research has found that the optimal time to post on Facebook for maximum post
engagement is 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday.8 Other good times include 12:001:00 p.m.
on Saturdays and Sundays and 1:004:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.

Keep your attendees in mind when it comes to your content schedule. Data from
CoSchedule suggests that B2B content (content by business for businesses) performs
16% better during business hours.9 So if you host an event around building business
skills, such as industry conferences or professional development classes, you may
see a similar trend. However, consumer content content targeting individuals and
their personal interests performs 17% better on weekends. The majority of events
(concerts, festivals, or 5ks, for instance) would fall in this bucket.

Instagram:

According to TrackMaven, the effectiveness of sharing photos on Instagram is the same


any time of day.10 Videos tend to perform best any night of the week between 9pm and
8am, which could suggest that people are happy to engage with photo content during
work hours, but not so much with video.

Think about where potential attendees are and what they might be doing at the time of
your post. A fun event photo might do well late night on a Saturday to build excitement,
but that might not be the best time to push ticket sales and registrations.

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Twitter:

By analyzing the data from all tweets sent through its platform, Buffer found the most
common times to post to Twitter. Looking at all tweets sent across all major time zones,
here is an overview of the most popular times to tweet:

The most popular time to tweet


is between noon and 1pm local
time, for each time zone

The fewest tweets


are sent between 3am and 4am

So, what does this mean for your events social media strategy?

Tweeting during the most popular time may make it more difficult for your tweet to stand
out in someones timeline. That suggests there could be value in tweeting at non-peak
hours in the early morning and late evening.

However, the most popular times to tweet could very well correlate to the times your
potential attendees are on Twitter. Its worth testing to see when your posts get the most
engagement. For a week, try posting once a day during prime time, and once during a
less popular hour. Then, look back on your tweet impressions for each post, which you
can find in Twitters free analytics. See which time period is getting your posts in front of
the most eyes, and stick with that.

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LinkedIn:

LinkedIn tends to be used by professionals during the work week. The Huffington Post
explains that the best days to post on LinkedIn are Tuesday through Thursday during
work hours. In addition, Tuesday 10 to 11am is known to get the most clicks and shares.

Again, think about where potential attendees are and what theyre doing before you post.
If youre hosting a conference that attendees may need their bosss approval to register
for, it makes sense to push sales during work hours. But if youre hosting a weekly
ceramics class, you might wait to push ticket sales and registrations until attendees are
on the bus home rather than distracted in the office.

As you might expect, the worst time to post content on LinkedIn is between the hours
of 10pm and 6am when people would rather be sleeping than thinking about work!11

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Step 7 Incorporate images to catch your
audiences attention
Adding images is one of the fastest ways to increase engagement, clicks, retweets,
replies, and more with your posts.

Want proof? Twitter found that the most influential factor in getting retweeted is you
guessed it whether you include a photo or video. In fact, posts with images are a third
more likely to get retweeted than posts without. Similarly, Buzzsumo discovered that
Facebook posts with images see 2.3X more engagement than those without images.12

So, how can you incorporate images into your events social media strategy?
Here are two ways to make visuals that are easier than you may think:

1. Post to other social networks from Instagram: A Buzzsumo study of over


1 billion Facebook posts from 3 million brand pages found that images posted to
Facebook via Instagram receive 23% more engagement than images published
via Facebook itself. (Instagram also can post directly to your Twitter account, but
this displays as a link rather than an image so its likely more effective to post
the picture to Twitter separately.)

2. Create engaging images with free online tools: You no longer have to be a designer
to create brilliant and engaging social media images. Free online image editing tools
like Pablo enable everyone even non-designers to create beautiful images to help
increase online engagement.

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Optimize your posts and ticketing page
for mobile users
Why do images perform so well on social media? For one, because theyre easily
digestible on mobile phones and tablets which is where the majority of users
are interacting on these networks. When it comes to social media, think with a
mobile-first mindset.

Think about how your content will be displayed within news feeds. How can you grab
attention as people scroll through? Of Facebooks 1.5 billion active users, nearly half
(46%) only use Facebook on mobile devices. (88% are active on mobile.) 13

This trend is growing across all social networks. According to AdWeek, Pinterests
traffic is 80% mobile, and Instagrams traffic is 100% mobile. 14

With so many of your potential attendees reading your social promotion on mobile,
its vital your event ticketing or registration page looks seamless on phones and tablets.
Studies have shown a 160% lift in conversions for mobile-optimized purchase flows,
so this can have a huge impact on your ability to drive ticket sales and registrations
from social promotion.

Be sure to choose a ticketing or registration partner that has a 100% mobile-optimized


site. Or, better yet choose a partner like Eventbrite that lets people buy tickets and
register through social media sites like Facebook.

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Section 3 How to measure your impact and drive
more sales

If your primary objective on social media is to drive ticket sales and registrations,
you need to measure your results. Tracking performance is the only way to know if
your likes and shares are actually driving results, so you can improve the return on
investment (ROI) of your efforts.

Step 8 Measure and adjust your strategy to drive


ticket and registration sales
Each social network offers insight into engagement with your posts. Views, likes, and
shares are standard across platforms, and some platforms may also offer you insight
into link clicks or profile clicks. If you use a social media management platform like
Buffer, you can find engagement analytics across your social networks aggregated and
easy to view.

But if youre using social media primarily for event marketing, the most important
number isnt views or likes its usually registrations or ticket sales. Here are a few
strategies to track the impact of your posts on ticket sales:

Using your ticketing or registration partners built-in reporting: If you use a


partner like Eventbrite, your ticket and registration sales are automatically tracked
in 24/7 online reports accessible online and via the Eventbrite Organizer mobile app.
Using these reports, you can see your sales by hour at a glance, and compare spikes
to the times you posted.

Use these reports to get clear insights into how many of your sales are driven
by social media, and what times youre selling the most tickets or registrations.
If you see sales spike right after a certain type of post, or at a certain time each day,
you can plan for more posts like those to sell even more tickets or registrations.

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Set up tracking links for your posts: Tracking links are the best way to see which
specific networks or posts are driving the most sales. (A tracking link is a unique
URL for each promotion you do for your event.)

You can generate these links using UTM codes (little snippets of code at the end
of a URL to understand how many people click on each link), or your ticketing or
registration providers tracking link generator to build them automatically. If you
use a social media management platform to shorten links, be aware that they may
overwrite your links with their own tracking, so be sure to turn off that setting if
youre relying on your own UTM or ticketing or registration platforms system.

Use one link for all your posts on a network to measure the ROI of the platform as
a whole. (Dont forget to track your links on your profile as well!) Or, use a different
tracking link for every single post, to find out what time, copy, or images are most
effective to drive sales. These specific insights will help you take your social media
strategy to the next level.

One of the most important metrics for your event promotion is return on investment,
or ROI. In most cases, ROI refers to the dollar value of tickets or registrations sold
compared to the money used to fund advertisements. With free promotion like social
media, you might consider ROI as the dollar value of tickets or registrations sold
compared to the value of the time you put into posts.

Not familiar with calculating ROI? Check out this article for Buffers six steps to calculate
your social media ROI.

Highlight social engagement on your ticketing


or registration page to drive sales
Another way to drive more sales? Highlight social media on your ticketing or registration
page itself. Facebook has found that showing which friends are attending an event can
increase engagement with the event by 25%.

If you use Eventbrite, extend the social engagement to your ticketing or registration
page. Showcase potential attendees Facebook friends who have already bought tickets
or registered, or use Social Stream to highlight Twitter and Instagram posts with your
events hashtag. This social proof can help turn potential attendees into ticket buyers
and registrants.

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Step 9 Generate buzz during the event
One of the best ways to sell out your next event? Get attendees raving about
their experience online. Imagine social media as a way to put their praise in front
of a loudspeaker.

Every event marketer dreams of their event going viral but its not something you
can do on your own. The good news is, your event trending online is more achievable
than you may realize. Since many social platforms prioritize location and concentration
of posts per hour in their news feeds, events have good chance of rising to the top of
the noise.

The trick to your events virality? Your attendees have to want to share their experiences.
Heres advice on how to motivate them to achieve this holy grail of social media.

Set the scene for image sharing:

In a study of 25 million tweets about events, Eventbrite found that 42% of the buzz took
place during the event itself. And if you thought visual elements were only important
before the event, think again: 36% of total buzz around events are posts sharing videos,
pictures, and quotes during the event. (Photos are by far the most popular.) In fact,
only 6% of the social media conversation that took place during the event didnt have
a media element.

Take advantage of attendees natural desire to take photos by providing the picture-
perfect moment that posts to social media automatically. Here are two methods
that have become increasingly popular in recent years:

Instagram photo booths: These photo booths can work two ways: 1. A photo booth
that prints out physical copies of any pictures published to Instagram using your events
(or sponsors) hashtag or 2. By posting the picture taken in the booth to Instagram.
Either way, your event gets publicity, and your attendees get to strike a pose.

Snapchat geofilters: As previously mentioned, geofilters are illustrations that attendees


can layer over their pictures from your event. To create a geofilter, you need to submit
a design and the location and time of your event to Snapchat at least one business day
in advance. Filters are surprisingly affordable, and an easy way to engage the younger
crowd in promotion.

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Encourage use of your hashtag:

Hashtags are one of the most effective ways to unify conversation about your event,
get attendees to engage with your event and each other, and generate buzz to drive
ticket sales and registrations for next time. But Eventbrite has found that only 45% of
tweets around events use hashtags. Here are four strategies to increase usage:

Keep your hashtag short: After all, many of these platforms have character limits,
and an attendee may choose to cut your hashtag from their post before their own
commentary.

Make the hashtag memorable: Consider simply using your event name, its acronym,
or even including a hashtag in the official name of your event. At the event, showcase
this hashtag in as many places as possible on the agenda, on table settings, on the
big screen, and more.

Double-check that the hashtag isnt already being used: Before finalizing your
hashtag, search it on social media to make sure its not already in use for an event.
Its also good to double-check that nothing inappropriate or NSFW (not safe for work)
is associated with the hashtag.

Showcase a social media or Twitter wall: These screens display tweets and images
as theyre posted if theyre tagged with your events hashtag. People love to be in the
spotlight, and your attendees are no exception. (If you use Eventbrite, you can motivate
attendees to post with your hashtag before the event, by including Social Stream on your
ticketing or registration page.)

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By mastering your marketing strategy on social, you can increase traffic to your ticketing
or registration page, and turn more of those views into sales. Ready to invest in your
efforts? Find out more ways event marketing managers can save time on social media by
using Buffer, and learn how to sell more tickets or registrations without more effort
by using Eventbrite.

1
http://timgrahl.com/how-to-choose-which-social-media-is-right-for-you/
2
http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
3
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/
4
http://marketingland.com/report-92-percent-pinterest-pins-made-women-83394
5
https://twitter.com/BIIntelligence/status/452174966788608001
6
http://www.inc.com/michelle-manafy/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-sites-to-market-your
-business.html#ixzz3AyJiZYdZ
7
https://hireinfluence.com/blog/all/the-social-media-4-1-1-rule/
8
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-times-post-pin-tweet-social-media-infographic#sm.
000jtt7mwfl3ea811i529shncr1su
9
http://coschedule.com/blog/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
10
http://trackmaven.com/blog/2014/07/best-times-to-post/
11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/the-best-times-to-post-on_b_6990376.html
12
http://buzzsumo.com/blog/how-to-massively-boost-your-blog-traffic-with-these-5-awesome-image-stats/
13
http://venturebeat.com/2015/11/04/facebook-passes-1-55b-monthly-active-users-and-1-01-billion-daily-active-users/
14
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/instagram-and-pinterest-dominate-mobile-traffic/628724

Eventbrite powers ticketing and registration for more than two million live experiences
each year, hosting the worlds largest online selection of events. Organizers use
Eventbrite to boost ticket sales, promote and manage events, and analyze results.
Event-goers use Eventbrite to discover exciting things to do and get tickets on a safe,
easy-to-use platform. To get in touch, go to eventbrite.com/blog/contact or call
(866) 902-2531.

Buffer is one of the leading social media management tools; providing scheduling,
insights and analytics for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google +, to help
our more than 3 million users connect with their audience every day. There are two
other products under the Buffer umbrella: Pablo, which helps users create simple but
stunning social media images in seconds; and Respond, a social-first customer
service tool for listening and responding on social media.

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